Who makes it? This is a Schleich figure, item number 16343. I’ll be honest, this one’s going to be brief…!
When did it come out? It was first released in 2006
Still available? Nope. It was discontinued in 2015
Where can it be found in my displays? It is not. It’s actually my son’s, and it’s in his cabinet.
How does it fit in the collection? In general…it doesn’t. I don’t do a lot with domestic or farm animals. But it’s in the list, and the number came up!
Any story behind it? Not really. If I had to guess, it was a bonus figure when we made a purchase of other Schleich figures at a store. That used to be a thing…until most of the stores around me that sold Schleich stopped doing that (or closed).
Notable remarks about this figure (a review that isn’t really a review): I’m not going to be able to say much. I mean, it’s a dog. A German Shepherd puppy. They did a good job with getting that young shepherd look, right down to the floppy ears, before they solidify a bit and stick up. The sculpt is good, with a bright and happy face. The paint job is also pretty accurate (although this particular one is a bit worn from time). My biggest complaint would be the size. It stands about 2.5cm at the shoulder, but it gets tricky to determine scale because there is no sense of how old it is. I am, however, familiar with 8 week-old shepherd puppies–and if you compare it with a Schleich human boy figure (below) it’s huge. Way too big. Seriously, it’s almost the size of my dog (a full grown elkhound) compared to that kid. But I suppose making it small enough to actually be to scale with Schleich humans–or their adult dog figures–would have been difficult for sales purposes. But it’s not like Schleich hasn’t made smaller animal figures (more recently, some very small ones like guinea pigs and scorpions) were released in plastic packages).
Would I recommend it? I have mentioned at least a few times that I find it hard to not recommend figures. This is one of those cases where really, I’m just kind of ambivalent. I mean, it’s a nice figure. And it’s Schleich, so overall it will be well-made and probably very desirable to fans of collectors of that brand (of which there are many). It is of course discontinued, but I am guessing there are lots of them still out there, Schleich doesn’t mess around with production or distribution.
